Sponsor withdraws Arkansas bill that would exempt licensed family child care homes from local zoning

State Rep. Randy Torres, district 17, told the House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs Committee that he had filed House Bill 1997 to create a targeted exemption from local zoning restrictions for licensed family child care homes statewide, including inside municipal limits.

Torres said the bill would “preserve local authority to enforce health and safety regulations” while removing zoning barriers that can prevent qualified providers from opening in residential neighborhoods. He told the committee the measure was prompted by a pilot program in Western Benton County funded by an Arkansas Community Foundation grant awarded in October 2024 for almost $340,000.

The pilot, run by the Western Benton County Partnership, created six new in-home child care businesses and about 60 new child care slots last year, Torres said. He said the program now has 10 providers signed up and three more expected to onboard in the next two to three months; current enrollment across the homes is about 58 children and most sites are licensed for up to 10 children.

Why it matters: Arkansas faces a shortage of accessible child care in many rural communities and small towns, Torres told the committee. He said local zoning ordinances can unintentionally act as barriers to small, home-based child care businesses and that the bill is an effort to scale a model he described as effective in places such as Gentry and Siloam Springs.

Committee members pressed Torres on several implementation questions. Rep. Barnes asked whether the homes could keep up to 10 children; Torres replied that licensing limits are determined by the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education and "it all depends" on ages and other licensing rules. Rep. Springer and others asked whether the bill would override county or municipal zoning rules in Pulaski County and similar jurisdictions; Torres confirmed it would relax local zoning but said the division would still enforce health and safety standards.

Several members voiced concerns about local control and neighborhood impacts. Rep. Barnes cautioned that homeowners who paid for quiet neighborhoods could be affected and said the measure risked overreach into local decision-making. Rep. Henley and Rep. Duke raised parking and employee-parking requirements, with Henley noting some municipalities have required businesses to add paved parking when a residence becomes a commercial use; Torres answered that many in-home providers are homeowners who live on-site and do not employ staff, reducing employee-parking concerns.

Rep. Nazarinko questioned whether the bill would be a state response to one local problem and whether it conflicted with recent votes on other matters of local zoning control. Torres referenced a recent law that removed extraterritorial jurisdiction for cities and said this bill would be limited to in-home child care services.

Torres said the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education has been favorable to the concept and that mayors in places that piloted the program indicated it was “not the end of the world.” But after hearing committee questions and feedback, Torres closed by saying he would withdraw the bill for further drafting: “I'll just pull it down and and work on it, and try to craft something that will … hopefully in the interim, we can continue to go move forward with this.”

No committee vote was recorded on the bill during the hearing. Representative Torres told the committee he plans to revise the proposal and return with a reworked draft for future consideration.

Ending: The committee took no formal action on House Bill 1997; Torres withdrew the measure at the conclusion of the presentation and the committee adjourned.